Yes, fashion & the dollar store can be in same sentence!

My face is blown out in this shot but I did that on purpose, ha ha: I wanted you to focus on the scarf.

Designer? Vintage? Mega bucks?

Nah.

Found at the best dollar store ever in the basement of Empress Walk shopping centre (located just outside the North York Centre subway stop).

It was a couple bucks.

Generally I don't go looking for style in the dollar store, but lesson number one when you're a deal diva is to have an open mind.

It's summer weight but I used it to jazz up a pair of riding pants and a chunky sweater by west-coast designer Talula Babaton (the latter thrifted for a song at Goodwill).

Other apparel items I buy at the dollar store?

White sports socks. Can't beat the price.

And sometimes, blush, you can find really decent undies and thongs for a buck. Hey, why pay more at the department store?

Do you have any dollar store fashion secrets?

P.S. Thanks to Antonella for snapping the pic!

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Pink Christmas

I don't have a lot going in the holiday decor department in my pad right now, since I'm going home soon and my tree is still in storage in Ottawa, alas.

And I don't have the creativity of of some of my fellow bloggers - I'm thinking of Sonya from Dime Store Thrift in particular - when it comes to crafty holiday decorations, so I have to wing it, a la Grunge Queen way.

When I saw these mirrored pink candelsticks at the dollar store for $1.99, I picked them up and then glammed them up with some black candles, also found at the dollar store.

There were some blue ones too. I bought some for gifts because the price was right and they look chic and expensive.

Dollar stores don't just carry cheap plastic stuff. I've found items by Rolodex and Yardley, French glasswear to candlesticks made in New York. I don't know if they're oversell or defective but I have yet to find anything wrong with these items.

Check on Sonya's holiday tree and wreaths at http://dimestorethrift.blogspot.com/

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Easy peasy holiday centrepiece

Sorry for the late post tonight. As I sit and do my holiday cards tonight I'm basking in the glow of this grungy-glam makeshift centrepiece.

I found these Williams Sonoma green pear-scented tea lights at my neighborhood dollar store (where I also got the cards). I plopped them on a silver tray I've had for years, picked up at a thrift store (silver trays are always in abundance for super cheap at places like Value Village), and voila, instant centrepiece.

Simple, elegant and all in five minutes - the Grunge Queen way! Now I must finish my cards. This week I'll also show some thrift gifts and a MISTAKE thrift outfit that is rather elf-like in its appearance! Goodnight!

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Sun on desk

If I were a true blue photographer, I wouldn't be a storm chaser: I'd be a sun chaser.

After a media photo shoot in my pad (SO excited - will link to article when it comes out this weekend!), I caught the sun sliding across my desk, as you see here.

I had to catch it quickly, though, as it was moving fast.

I love my desk area now, by the way.

I took a dining room table from the trash and covered it with dollar store wall paper by Ralph Lauren.

The lamps are thrift, and the spanky new phone is my recent thrift score. The desk chair was found in the trash, as was the chair to the left of the desk.

The green Toronto Harbour prints were found at Value Village for a few bucks each.




The blue head vase by the white lamp was one of my very first trades - I saw it in a junk store window when I was a starving student and traded a bunch of my jewellery with the owners - they were happy as they gave the bling to their daughter, and I was thrilled to have my first head vase.

See the finial on the top of the blue lamp? It's actually a tortoise shell drawer pull from an old vanity.

And before I knew it, the sun was gone ....

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Canada Day parties & sisterly inspiration

Yesterday's post should have been my Canada Day post as I featured red and white roses, but here's an entertaining post for those of you who are BBQing today.

My sis hosted a party the other day and decorated with pink everything. You can tell she's related to the Grunge Queen 'cos she kept her decor cheap n' easy.

The pink roses were plucked from the rose bush in the front of her home, and all she did was snip 'em and plunk 'em in some plain white bowls and voila: instant centre-pieces!


I love the cake - so girlie, so sweet, so preety - and so easy!

All she did was put yellow, pink and orange smarties on top - you see they match the dollar store napkins she bought!

Way to go, sis. Lovely party.

And Happy Canada day to fellow Canadians!

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Rosey poses

It was my B-day a while ago and some charming gent brought me a dozen long-stemmed roses.

I plopped them in a gorgeous crystal vase I found at the dollar store for under $20 (the same vase I bought a former friend years ago and paid way more for!).

They were nice roses, so they lasted a good week - my thrifty tip for helping them along was to change their water every day and cut them down every day as well.

When they really started to go I cut the stems off completely and plonked them into a big rose bowl.

I've had rose bowls of various sizes since my green days growing up in the 1970s. That's how florists arranged roses then - or at least that's how roses given to me as gifts were always arranged back then.


So I hold a special place in my heart for roses in roses bowls even though it may seem a little old-fashioned.

The added bonus, natch, is that they'll last even longer this way. Funny, for some reason the red ones went before the white - maybe the whites are heartier?

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True blue thrifty patio

I'm still on my patio kick. Since I haven't had time to work on my current patio re-do project, here's a little look I put together four years ago in Ottawa - along the Rideau River - using thrift store and dollar store finds.

The tablecloth was $14 at a dollar store and I ended up giving it to the person who owned the house and let me do the photo shoot there.

The rest of the items you can see listed in the article I wrote for the Ottawa Citizen newspaper; simply click on the image to the left to make it larger.






Some of my fave things:
I turned this wrought iron telephone table - picked up for $5 at a garage sale! - into a serving nook.

I threw tiny carnations into old glass sugar containers.



I think these dollar store wine flutes look perfectly elegant on an old silver tray.







Speaking of old silver I love putting flowers in old silver water jugs - the look would just get better as the silver tarnished over time.


I cheated a bit by putting old pillowcases over the bright purple vinyl seatcovers on the wrought iron chairs bought at the Sally Ann - that's the grunge-queen way: fake it!




Here's the look from afar, overlooking the river. It was the end of May and not quite full-on green-ess.


Hopefully this will inspire you in your weekend entertaining!
Have a good one!!

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Tea party patio a la cheap

My patio project (see post below) has gotten me thinking of past patio projects - which have been few given I've lived in apartments for my time in Toronto.

Three summers ago when I was just getting in to freelance writing and junking in a big way, I wrote a piece on having a tea party in your outside space - from there I created a romantic tea party look on my ugly fire escape so I could have a pretty photo accompanying the article.

I hung up dollar store sheers to cover the icky white brick, plopped my fave piece of Ralph Lauren floral fabric over a ratty fold-up table I had painted red (same table will be part of this year's patio project!), and threw together some pretty tea cups and a silver tea set I found at the thrift shops. The gold-tone shawl hanging on the silver chair is still a fave for draping over chairs and such - I found that at Value Village for $6.99 or so.

Some creative touches: an old watch as a napkin holder; spray painting the wrought iron chairs silver and recovering them with fabric from a dollar store tablecloth!

I even made the crustless sandwiches for my photo shoot, which I styled myself (and broke my sister's borrowed camera in the process - talk about spending money to make money!).

Here's the article I wrote about putting it all together along with some tea trivia; just double click on it to get a better view:

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Dad's day & dollar store cards

I admit it: I bought my Dad's Father's Day card at the dollar store up the street. But I found a half decent one, thank the dollar store gods.

The people who write the lyrics for cards that end up in the dollar store are incapable of using adjectives other than "special" for Father's Day ditties, it seems.

Worse, they have these strange images on the front. Yes, a bird is nice. But why the insets with three close-ups of the bird, with "Trust," "Loving" and "Caring" under each?

Does daddie love birdies so much? If I were the bird, let alone the daughter, I'd be feeling somewhat disturbed.

How about this one?

Is the poor deer in the cross hairs, or is this some artsy representation of a deer?

Yikes.

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